UNIT 4

UNIT FOUR: GLOBAL INTERACTIONS

PERIODIZATION: 1450 to 1750

Class Time: 5 Weeks

Reading:  Ways of the World chapters 14-16; The Human Web chapter 6.

Key Concepts

1.1  Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange

1.    In the context of the new global circulation of goods, there was an intensification of all existing regional trade networks that brought prosperity and economic disruption to the merchants and governments in the trading regions of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia. 

2.    European technological developments in cartography and navigation built on previous knowledge developed in the classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds, and included the production of new tools, innovation in ship designs, and an improved understanding of global wind and currents patterns – all of which made transoceanic travel and trade possible.

3.    New transoceanic maritime reconnaissance occurred in this period.

4.    Technological developments enabling trans-oceanic trade

5.    Environmental exchange and demographic trends: Columbian Exchange

6.    Spread and reform of religion

7.    Global and regional networks and development of new forms of art and expression

1.2  New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production

1.    Labor systems and their transformation

2.    As new social and political elites change, they also restructured new ethnic, racial, and gender hierarchies.

1.3  State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion

1.    Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

2.    Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires in both hemispheres.

3.    Competition over trade routes, state rivalries, and local resistance all provided significant challenges to state consolidation and expansion.

Topics for discussion: Ming and Qing Rule in China; Japanese Shogunates; The Trading Networks of the Indian Ocean; Islamic Empires (Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal); the Columbian Exchange and Atlantic Slave Trade.

Assignments:

1)   Writing – students will continue to develop essay writing.  Possible prompts include questions from previous released AP exams: Compare coercive labor systems in the Americas; economic and social effects of the Columbian Exchange; DBQ on the Global flow of sliver.

2)   Timeline – students will create a timeline for the period connecting events by relationships between the causes and consequences of the events.

3)   Reflective Blog – students will write a reflective commentary considering the impact of the Columbian Exchange during this era and its connection to the larger story of world history.

4)   Primary Sources – students will analysis using soapstone the following primary sources: Journals of Christopher Columbus; Letters from King Kong; Martin Luther’s 95 Theses; Native American Account of Cortes’s Conquest of Mexico; visual sources: the Codex Mendoza, outrigger canoes; coins, cannons, weapons and maps of the period.

5)   Debate – Did Tokugawa policies strengthen Japan?  Should Columbus be considered a hero? 

6)   Student groups will research and be responsible for explaining the political and cultural developments in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, China, Japan, the Mughal Empire, Africa and the Americas. 

7)   Notecards on key terms for review.  

Unit Test – 25 multiple-choice questions and an in-class essay.

AP World History – UNIT 4
Learning Goal: Students will be able to analyze and evaluate global interactions (networks of communication and exchange, modes of production, and imperial expansion) from 1450 – 1750.
4	Students will be able to analyze and evaluate global interactions in exchange and expansion from 1450 to 1750 and make comparisons to other time periods.
3	Students will be able to analyze and evaluate global interactions in exchange and expansion from 1450 to 1750.
2	Students will be able to explain global interactions in exchange and expansion from 1450 to 1750.
1	Student will be able to recognize global interactions in exchange and expansion from 1450 to 1750.
Key Concepts: ·     Globalizing networks of communication and exchange ·     New forms of social organization and modes of production ·     State  consolidation and imperial expansion